According to Embassy Mag today, for the month prior to the vote, opposition MPs were lobbied by consultants hired by Barrick Gold, IAMGold, Vale Canada, the Mining Association of Canada, and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

The Liberal sponsor of the bill, John McKay, says he does not think that there will be "another attempt at a bill looking at corporate social responsibility for the mining sector until after another election."

Let's be honest, Anoymous: Public interest and human rights awareness is NOT 'the same lobby efforts'.

Corporate lobbying is well-funded and in the pursuit of corporate interests. Our MPs are elected to act for the common good. John MacKay was trying to do just that and should have been supported in his efforts.

Lobbying is lobbying, despite who conducts it. How can you make the claim the the lobby efforts are any different? One group trying to influence the government to adopt their issue/cause/point of view.

Do not kid yourself - special interest groups such as CBI and Mining Watch (and the Church groups who were all over this issue) are well funded groups. A lot of money flows up from the US for these "public interest" issues.Plenty of NGO and church groups lobbied hard for C-300 and spent a LOT of money going to Ottawa to do so.

Another common good that people tend to forget: industry and jobs.Ask the multitudes of unemployed people in the North - they want jobs.

The mining companies who claim they are so socially and environmentally responsible should have had no problem with this Bill. The fact that they do speaks volumes.

Also, if Canadians in northern regions want mining jobs, they should consider that if these corporation are obliged to afford all workers and their communities globally safe working conditions, environmentally sound policies, and decent living standards, these corporations wouldn't be leaving Canada high and dry in order to seek less regulation and cheaper labour.

As more and more Canadian mining operations get bought out by huge multinationals, the more job losses we experience. Just ask Brad Wall.

@BeijingI understand what you are saying; however, I believe that mining companies were opposed to the content of the bill rather than accountability itself. I would suggest taking a good look at the bill because it is completely flawed. The Principle behind it (accountability) is great, but the bill itself was terrible.

One of the largest problems was that it aimed to force Ministers to be prosector, judge and jury on issues that they do not have expertise on. Nor do Ministers wants this sort of responsibility.

Also, it doesn't seem right that companies would be scrutinized regardless if "complaints" were legitimate or not. Jusdging by the comments made here, it is even more clear that the suggestion of "an abuse" is viewed as a commission of guilt. How do you think that would translate if the bill had actually passed?That is not a fair and balanced approach.MacKay attempted to politicize CSR rather than work together, collaboratively with NGOs and Industry and, most improtantly, the independant government CSR Counsellor.

The corporations do not leave Canada for cheap labour. Prospectors and miners conduct their work based on geology. There are many exploration and mining companies operating in Canada. If you ask those in the North, namely the Aboriginal population, development in their areas is the only way out of poverty and ecnomic dependancy on INAC.

Again, to respond to your comments about job loss and offshoring - this is not the case. StatsCan just released some results on the subject:http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101028/t101028a2-eng.htm

The most amount of hiring, in percentage terms, between August of last year and this August has been in mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. It’s up 10.2 per cent.

wow - so much animosity towards an industry that you CAN'T live without! You people do realize that the very computer you are using was made using products from the mining industry? Your phones? Your houses? Your glasses? Your modes of public transit?

There are other countries in the world you know that manage to have mining without the above abuses.Self-regulation does not appear to have staved them off in our many Canadian-in-name-only mining firms.